2. The Mt. Angel Oktoberfest continued through Sunday, Sept. 18, 2005. It was just this mammoth fiesta of food booths and folk music — with ancillary pancake breakfasts, softball tourneys, volkswalks, monastery tours, craft fairs, car cruise-ins, and much, much more.

(Everyone seemed especially excited about the appearance of sexy button-box accordionist LynnMarie and her white-hot polka band, the Boxhounds.)

Want precise details? You can check out a map and a complete schedule of events online at Oktoberfest.org.

3. The beer festival’s a 501(c)(4) -- which means that its proceeds (in the low six figures, according to Jerry Lauzon) are distributed to local organizations like Scouting, schools and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital after the bills are paid. And from the looks of things, a ton of money is also being re-invested in the city infrastructure: With its wrought-iron signage and Bavarian building accents -- and plans for a mixed-use building (pictured below) featuring one of those automated clocks with characters from Mt. Angel history popping out a few times a day -- this is just a ridiculously charming little hamlet.

4. This is also Mt. Angel’s third major evolution, festival-wise: When the town was a major flax producer in the ’30s, they held a “Flax Festival.” After WWII, the flax industry collapsed, so the town tried holding a “Dairy Days” festival for while. But, as Jerry Lauzon sagely remarks, “Nobody wants to come to Mt. Angel to drink milk!”

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